Biomass has the potential to be a major source of renewable energy, and many years of research has been carried out in an attempt to tap this renewable energy source in an economical and efficient fashion. Unfortunately, existing biomass conversion processes have proven limited in useful applicability. For instance, transesterification can only use fats and oils as feedstock for production of biodiesel. Fermentation processes commonly utilized for ethanol production are relatively efficient, but compete with food source biomass. Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass is hindered by crosslinking of reaction intermediates, resulting in low yields and poor product quality. Wet biomass conversion is challenging due to the intensive energy requirements for pretreatment. Gasification or pyrolysis processes have efficiency loss due to high temperature requirements. Moreover, in all commonly utilized biomass conversion processes major components of the biomass feedstock, i.e., cellulose and lignin, are not well utilized and technologies for efficient conversion of these components simply does not exist. A lack of efficient conversion technology is also a significant issue for wet and whole-plant biomass, which are the most common and economically viable forms of biomass.
What are needed in the art are improved methods for conversion of biomass to useful hydrocarbon products by efficient and simple steps using processes with moderate temperature and energy requirements. Methods capable of high conversion (i.e., complete or essentially complete) of any biomass feedstock, and in particular whole-plant biomass feedstock, that can tolerate impurities, e.g., water and dirt from harvest, would be of great benefit.